


Byte by byte

by violetbear



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Family Feels, Firefighters, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:01:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25603981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetbear/pseuds/violetbear
Summary: Everyone was wrong about him. Knight was wrong. Scott was family. He could never hurt him. SAM and Scott have their usual quiet time after shift and SAM reflects on  his humanity.
Relationships: Male Ryder | Scott & SAM
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Byte by byte

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea where this idea came from but I like it. Hopefully, you do too.

"Okay spill", Scott insisted.   
"Spill?" He darken his view though Scott's eyes and turned on the camera above the computer. Scott smiled at it as if he knew it was on. He always seemed to know.  
"Isnt that disorienting? Watching yourself watch yourself?"  
"I'm watching you. And I'm not using your eyes at the moment to see." Was that the right way to say it? He could tell Scott a lot more then he could any other without them freaking out and calling for his death. But then Scott was special.   
"Okay then." Scott crossed his arms and leaned back. "Now that that's been established. Spill."  
"Spill what?"  
"You're upset. Why?"

"I'm not upset." Upset was such an human emotion. He wasn't upset. He was... Perplexed?  
"Uh huh. You're getting better at lying. Must be my bad influence but I can still tell when you are. Like right now." He stood and walked over to the bed and laid down.   
"What are you doing? You haven't finished."  
"Shift's over."  
"It's been over for three hours, twenty two minutes, and 32 seconds." 33. 34. Scott laughed. "You're going to have to explain."

"You sound like Sara. She always told me how late I was down to the second. You sure you're not connected to both of us?"  
"Yes. And I don't even think that's possible to be as connected as I am to you and being able to do it to another." Oh. Nevermind. It was. Something to think about for a future emergency but not now. "But back to what you asked."  
"Of course." Scott lifted his head and glanced around the room. "Is your only camera on this side above my bed?"  
"I have one on the vents pointed toward the door. "  
"That won't do."

Scott sat up and grabbed his data pad off the nightstand. He seemed to be looking through the ship's schematics. Why? He watched as Scott stood up and left the room, switching between the cameras. Watching Scott as he quietly snuck onto the bridge, past a mumbling in his sleep Kallo and stepping down onto the ledge between the window and the consoles.  
"What are you doing", he asked through their private channel.

"Stupid place to put a camera", Scott sub vocalized as he crouched and started to wiggle the camera free from its spot at the base of the ledge. "Someone could kick it and break it. In fact that's what the acquisition form is going to say." He disconnected it before pocketing it and returning to his room and sitting down on the couch, pulling over the box of assorted wires and parts he always kept near by. Just like Alec had. But he knew better than saying that fact aloud.  
"What are you doing?"  
"Tell me why you're upset."  
"I'm not."

Scott worked for a bit, putting things together and taking them apart, before he spoke again.  
"Is it because of what happened today? What Knight said?"  
"No", he denied automatically for some reason. "She was wrong."  
"She was. But she's probably not the only one to think it. She was just a bit more... Radicalized then the rest. She almost succeeded in killing you."  
"She didn't."  
"Maybe someone finally figured out I've lost too much family already."  
"I'm not-"  
"You are. You know me better than anyone on this ship."

He didn't have an answer to that. The only reason he knew him so well was because of where he'd been before. Or rather who he'd been with. He'd seen memories of Scott and Sara all the way back to their birth. He'd lost some in the last transfer but not his favourites. He'd taken extra precautions with those. 

Their first steps. First visit to earth. A snippet of baby babble as they played in Ellen's office. Still only fifty percent translated but he'd get it all one day. Ellen singing the twins to sleep. The same lullaby she sang when she cared for them when they were sick. The lullaby he played, barely audible, when Scott had nightmares. It always chased them away. Knight had said one day he would steal Scott's dreams. But he couldn't. More so.

"I would never."  
"Never what?" He refocused his view to see Scott was in bed, the project he'd been working on was sitting on the nightstand furthest from him.  
"What is that?"  
"That still needs a power supply but can't visit engineering right now. Lexi would murder me if I woke Gil up." He tried to focus on it but his angle was horrible. "You'd see it better if we shared." 

Scott closed his eyes and flipped onto his side, rendering the point moot. Not that he would have anyway. Inside this room, once Scott stopped working for the day, it was view from the cameras only. He and Scott had set up some rules in the days after habitat 7. That had been one of them. And though Scott had told him it was okay to stop following them, he kept that one without telling him. Though he knew Scott knew. And Scott knew he knew.

"It's for you, SAM. Hopefully gives you a 180 degree view of this side of the room. Better than one static camera. In theory. Made of remnant and milky way parts, it might not work or it might explode. But won't know that until tomorrow. Speaking of, happy early birthday." Scott yawned. "Glad I finally figured out what to get you." As Scott fell asleep he shifted his processors away to other work.

And finally realized why Knight's words had upset him so. She thought, and others thought, he was evil. That he was taking away Scott's humanity piece by piece. But that wasn't true. The opposite in fact was. Scott was helping him find his own humanity. Byte by byte.


End file.
